Happy Mother's Day!

Children are indeed a blessing from the Lord. What an amazing gift God has given us in each of these three girls. As we are on the eve of Mother's Day, I am in awe of what a blessing it is to be a mother. It is extremely hard work; I can't say that I've ever done anything more exhausting than pour my heart and soul and time and energy into these little lives, but what an amazing blessing it is!!! They make me crazy sometimes and drive me to the point of tears at others, but I praise God that I have each of them and pray that He will grant me many more Mother's Days with them!

Lainey has been working on Mother's Day presents for the last couple of weeks at school and has been very excited to give them to me. She got up on Tuesday morning and said, "I'm so excited about giving you my surprise today!" But evidently her teacher reminded them they needed to wait until Saturday or Sunday. So this morning after breakfast, she could wait no longer. She gave me her little brown paper sack with her hand print that she had traced and cut out and told me I could open it. Inside, was a little card she had made with flowers on it as well as several little magnets that had some of her artwork on the inside. But I think the most precious thing of all was a note she wrote me that said, "Dear Mom, Happy Mother's Day! I love you because you take me to McDonald's. Love, Lainey". I have to confess, it made me cry. I tear up even now thinking about it. It's just the little things you do for them that makes them think you're special. That's one of those notes that will be kept forever and ever. Lon took the girls out this afternoon so they could pick out a present for me. They came back with a beautiful hanging basket of red geraniums. Both of the girls were so proud as they told me that they picked it out. I love this phase of life (even in its most exhausting moments)!

A Day in the Park and a Little Bit of "Guarding"

We took the girls to the park in Lynden today after school so that Lainey could play with her special friend, Abby, from school. Today was the first day since last Saturday that it hasn't rained, so they all enjoyed being outside again. Lainey and Abby had a great time running and playing and Sarah Grace and our Abby enjoyed the park as well. Here are some photos from our time there:

We have quite the space for flower beds in our front yard and a number of flowers have come up already, but we've also been overtaken by weeds. Lainey and Sarah Grace and I went out this afternoon to try our hand at taming some of them. There is much work yet to be done, but with me being this pregnant, I can only squat so much! We're supposed to have sun again tomorrow so we'll be out again then. The girls enjoyed "helping". This basically amounted to them fighting over my trowel and then digging in the dirt. Lainey ended up with a book on the front steps for a time, but as Sarah Grace was helping me, I heard her say (to no one in particular), "This is guarding. I'm gard'ning with my mom." She then proceeded to call all of the bees in the neighborhood in for dinner. "Come on bees. Come and get your dinner!" Someone in the neighborhood was working outside with a saw and everytime she heard it, she would say, "Do you hear that? That's a bee." Here are a couple of pictures of us "guarding".

Number 12, Bully and Thief OR A Theological Discussion with a Three Year Old

This morning as I was working with Lainey on her math lessons, she came out with a story that made me think, "Oh, I've got to write some of this one down." We were working on numbers before and after a certain number and her book was calling them "next door neighbors". She liked this idea a lot as their examples had little houses drawn around the numbers. The book would give the number in the middle and she had to figure out which number went on either side. I started asking her what number lived next door. We got to the number 11 and I asked, "Who lives next to 11?" She said, "12. Who bullies him." I said, "Oh, 12 bullies 11? Why does he bully 11?" She said, "Because 11 is rich." I said, "Oh, is 12 jealous of 11's money?" She said, "Yes, and one night 12 came in and robbed 11, but 11 was only pretending to be asleep so he could really see 12. There was a really big fight. And then the next night, 11 went over and robbed 12 and got his money back." I asked her who lived on the other side of 11 and she said, "10. Sometimes 11 bullies him because he's smaller than 11 and 12 are." Where does she come up with this stuff? A little while later as she was doing a word problem involving subtraction, she looked at me and said, "My brain works like a computer!" She does make me laugh!

One of Sarah Grace's favorite possessions is a Gideon Bible Lainey got at the fair a couple of years ago. She had it last night and was looking through it and said, "The wonderful things God can do." What a blessing to hear God's praise coming from such little ones. She continued reading and at one point told me that she was on chapter N and later chapter T. She said, "Is this where Daddy preaches?" I told her it was. She said, "Can you find me the place where he preaches?" I told her that he preaches from the whole thing. She said, "Oh, the whole thing? That's a really long way!" She then said, "Is this all about God? Yes. "Is this all about Jesus?" Yes. "Is it all God's fault?" Translated: Did God do everything? I said, "Well, God made everything." She said, "Did God make Pull-ups?" I said, "Well, God made the people who made Pull-ups and He helped them to know how to make Pull-ups." "How do they make Pull-ups?" Theological discussion over. Oh well, baby steps I suppose!

Lainey G, Kindergartener, Toothless Wonder

The tooth, like the thrill for B.B. King, is gone! It came out yesterday with the help of dad, some pink thread, and a good pull! She's a cute little snaggle tooth now! The tooth fairy did visit over night and left her $5.00 (the rate is higher for "first" teeth). She used that to buy herself a book today at the book store and had it read by the time we'd driven back home (that's 67 pages, folks; she's a genius!).

NEVER A DULL MOMENT!!!

Some days, I wonder what I could possibly blog about and other days, my children provide ample material. Today was that day. Sometimes an incident occurs and I think, "There's my blog." In my few short years of parenting, I have discovered that there are times that your children require assistance to get out of a bind they've managed to get themselves into. But, I have also discovered that sometimes BEFORE you help them get out of said bind, pictures must first be taken so as to preserve the moment. Today was that day.

What we heard:
Lainey and Sarah Grace playing downstairs. Sarah Grace called me a couple of times, but, honestly, I had just sat down and thought, "I just can't get up right this second to see what they need." Sarah Grace called again and I heard Lainey say, "Yeah, you had better call her because I'm stuck." Sarah Grace then came upstairs and mumbled, "Mom, Lainey's stuck in the washing machine." Not freaking out, I said to Lon, "Oh, we've got to go see this. Let me get the camera."

What we saw:


Never a dull moment around here!!! It took some doing to get her out, but she did eventually come out. There were many tears and several bruises were sustained, but once we stopped and prayed, she came right out! Now, I'm hoping that she learned two lessons from this: one, how God answers prayer and two, NEVER GET INTO THE WASHING MACHINE AGAIN!

An Age Test

I truly believe that the Lord has given these children to me as a means of keeping me humble. I didn't know that pride was something I struggled with so much, but evidently I am in constant need of more humility. This morning, Lainey was working on a picture and she was writing down the ages of everyone in our house. She had a 1 for Abby, a 3 for Sarah Grace, a 5 for herself, and a 30 for Lon. When I came into the kitchen, she asked how old I was so I asked her how old she thought I was. She said, "Ahm, 20." I said, "Good, let's go with that!" Lon wasn't in favor of that idea however; something about lying to our kids (he's such a do-gooder!). When I told Lainey that I'm 33, she said, "Whoa!" Now, I choose to believe that what she meant by that exclamation was "Wow, mom you look incredible for 33; I can't believe that you've had 3 kids and are expecting your 4th! I hope my genes come from YOUR side of the family." But I suspect it might have been otherwise intended! My pride did come up a bit when Lon said she thought he was 31; humph, take that do-gooder!

And That's The Tooth. . .

The big news in our house today is that Lainey has a VERY loose tooth and seems on the verge of becoming a cute little snaggle tooth! We discovered the wiggly culprit before 7:00 this morning and our focus has been on it most of the day. She's so excited to know that, soon and very soon, her tooth is going to come out. I explained to her that it would probably bleed some when it came out, but that she would be okay. She seemed quite accepting of this so we'll just have to see how she reacts when the moment indeed comes to pass. Sarah Grace is upset at the prospect of her own teeth falling out, but we reassured her that she's got a couple of years to hold on to the ones she's got. Lainey has wiggled the tooth back and forth all day long and it really wouldn't take more than one good yank to get it out, but she's content to let it hang on for just a little while longer. Lon offered to tie a string around it and pull it out by tying the other end of the string to a door knob, but she wasn't too keen on the idea. There was a lot of nervous laughter along with looks of "You must be crazy, dad!" She went to bed tonight with one of her favorite books, Junie B, First Grader Toothless Wonder. I told her it won't be long before she's Lainey G, Kindergartener Toothless Wonder. We'll keep you posted on the saga of the wiggly incisor.

I don't really want to be one of those weepy moms who cries over every little stage of transition, but I've got to say, this one makes my heart ache just a bit and makes me mist over a touch. I've found myself asking that age old question that parents have been asking since the dawn of time: Where has the time gone? It seems like NO time at all since my sweet little 4 month old baby cut her first two teeth just after having been to the doctor's office and the doctor telling me that what I thought were tooth buds certainly could not be. (Just goes to show that sometimes moms do know a thing or two!) I fear that these years are going to slip by too quickly and that I'm going to turn around and see these sweet little children all grown up and on their own. It just makes me want to hold on to them a little bit tighter. Lord, please let me cherish each moment and not take any of them for granted!!